St. Albert ambulances are getting back on the road faster and responding to more calls in the city.
Changes rolled out by the province in March 2023 have resulted in paramedics spending less time offloading patients at hospitals and health centres across the province, including in St. Albert, according to an Alberta Health Services report.
The changes, including the addition of five ambulances each in Edmonton and Calgary and a new target of 45 minutes for hospital off-loads were rolled out in March. A year later, the improved wait times were outlined in the EMS Systems Improvement Update Report.
“Anecdotally, what the crews are reporting to me is that it's much better,” said Fred Holland, St. Albert Fire Services emergency medical services co-ordinator. Holland has spent 27 years on the road as a paramedic in the Capital Region. “There's still days that are busier, and occasionally there's still a creep of time over 45 minutes, but really, it's vastly improved from the numbers of 2022 and 2023.”
For the most urgent calls in metro and urban areas, the average response time dropped from 21:48 (21 minutes, 48 seconds) in Nov. 2022 to 13:11 in Feb. 2024. For non-emergent “alpha” calls, the average response time dropped from 1:54:17 to 30:28.
Responses into Edmonton by suburban paramedic units dropped from more than 160 per week at the end of 2023 to about 120 per week by the start of March 2024.
“Bearing in mind that they still are pulled into and then outside of the jurisdiction as needed, so that's still not uncommon that they're out of jurisdiction, but it is better and it's more common now that our own community vehicles are inside the community,” Hollands said.
The changes appear to have been good for morale, Holland believes.
“The crews will tell me that they get a little bit more time back in their station with their partner crews, so it helps with a better sense of satisfaction,” he said. “Because we're cross-trained with the engines and we do fire response, that feeling of community delivery is really important.
“I think it's better in a sense from morale that it's improved.”
By the same token, Hollands said the paramedic firefighters appreciate some of the changes are a result of hard work by hospital employees.
“It’s not lost on me that the hospital's shouldering a little bit of this now and I don't know how the system is working inside the hospital. So, we give a lot of credit to the hospital staff and the emergency, because it can't be easy for them.
“We work in a dynamic system and continue to bring high-quality care to the citizens of our community and our neighbouring communities.”
Hollands said firefighters remain optimistic the changes will stick.
“We’ve seen initiatives come and go through the years, so there's always a fear of a risk of it getting worse again,” he said. “I think that will always be in the back of our minds, but we're optimistic and we hope that through the next year, the initiative sustains.”
Stephen Underhay, assistant chief of operations at St. Albert Fire Services, confirmed administration is seeing measurable improvements in an email.
He pointed out that a new inter-facility transfer contract for the Edmonton area was awarded in May to help reduce the number of pre-scheduled patient transfers emergency ambulances have historically completed.
“St. Albert Fire Services’ ambulance crews have been continuously reporting reduced hospital wait times over the last 12 months,” and are being redirected outside the city less often, too, according to Underhay.
“(Our) ambulances do still get relocated into neighbouring municipalities as a result of the regional ambulance model; however, there is a notable increase in the number of calls that our ambulances respond to within St. Albert,” Underhay wrote.
Local paramedics are now responding to 59 per cent of calls within St. Albert, a 12 per cent increase over 2022.
“When busy on another emergency event, AHS ambulances provide coverage within St. Albert and responds to any 911 calls until our ambulances become available. St. Albert Fires Services is committed to providing the highest level of care possible to the residents of our community.”
